We spoke to Liam Shanahan, APL Director on this key anniversary.
Starting out as a small laboratory without an established history or client-base, APL considered NATA accreditation to be an essential path for customers to gain trust in their quality and competence.
“We noted the importance of NATA accreditation from our inception and keenly awaited our accreditation before we opened our doors to customers,” said Liam.
“From humble beginnings, we have continually extended and improved our capability in pressure. APL’s pressure capability extends from 500 MPa ultra-high pressure down to vacuum of 0.2 Pa absolute.”
In recent years APL has also developed capability in electrical calibration, with a focus on process meters and multifunction calibrators which aligns with their pressure capabilities.
“Having ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation through NATA has enabled us to service a wide range of customers from industrial users to low-uncertainty reference calibrations for metrologists. Accreditation gives customers confidence that our calibration certificates provide an unbroken chain of traceability that can be relied upon, and that our people, methods and equipment have been externally reviewed by technical experts,” added Liam.
“Customers are increasingly seeking our accredited services to ensure compliance with industry regulation or their internal quality systems, and we are pleased to be able to offer calibration certificates that fulfil their requirements. The ILAC MRA has also enabled us to increase our international client base.
We are strong supporters of the NATA accreditation process and provide four volunteer technical assessors for NATA in areas of pressure and mass calibration,” said Liam.
“We are often asked by clients operating non-accredited laboratories about whether it is worthwhile gaining accreditation. In many cases the client is already certified to ISO 9001, and we whole-heartedly recommend that they proceed to ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation with NATA to demonstrate their technical competence.
Accreditation opens many business opportunities, and the NATA assessment process is a great opportunity to confirm and improve in both quality and technical competence through the independent NATA peer review process.
We remain just as passionate about high-quality accredited pressure calibration today as we were when we opened our doors in 1994 and look forward to bringing more improvements to our accredited capability in future,” concluded Liam.
Congratulations to APL on achieving this significant milestone.
For more information about APL, please visit their website: Australian Pressure Lab (auspressurelab.com.au)